Family confronts killer of Sydney teen found in acid-filled bathtub

Warning: Distressing content

The family of a Sydney teen who was found dead inside a bathtub filled with acid have confronted her killer in court.

Arnima Hayat, 19, was found dead in the bath in a North Parramatta home in January 2022.

WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE: Parents confront the killer of their pregnant daughter.

Her new husband, now aged 23, Meraj Zafar, was later charged with murder after handing himself in.

Zafar pleaded guilty to murder in May and appeared in court as part of his sentencing hearing on Monday.

7NEWS understands the couple had only been married for four months before the murder, and Arnima had fallen pregnant.

On Monday, almost three years after her death, Arnima’s mother Mahafuza Akter shared her heartbreaking victim impact statement in Sydney’s Supreme Court.

“She was stolen from me,” she said.

“She was stolen from my home ... stolen from the thousands of people she would have helped as a medical doctor.”

Mahafuza went on to share the harrowing question Arnima’s younger sister keeps asking her.

“Her younger sister still waits outside and says, ‘Is my sister coming?’” the heartbroken mother said in court.

Zafar confessed to the murder, however, has never shared details of how he committed it.

Police alleged Arnima was either smothered or strangled to death.

Zafar then placed his wife’s body in a bath of hydrochloric acid he bought from Bunnings.

Arnima’s father, Abu Hayat, said he missed his daughter every day.

“I see her face in my dreams,” he told the court.

“He burned the face I used to kiss every night.

“He burned her.”

Police said Zafar’s Google searches included the effects of hydrochloric acid on the skin and the length of a murder sentence.

In a letter written to Judge Deborah Sweeney and Arnima’s family, Zafar said at the time of the murder he was “hurting and in a bad space” and added he hoped “one day” they could forgive him.

Arnima was in her second year studying medicine at university and had dreams of becoming a surgeon.

The 23-year-old will be sentenced at a later date.

- With reporting by Tom Sacre

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